One style of music that metalheads always find themselves attracted to outside of a world of intense riffs and blast-beats is singer/songwriter acoustic projects such as Wardruna, Amigo the Devil and Emma Ruth Rundle. Witchcraft releases their first new album in four years, Black Metal, and during an uncertain time that we are currently living, this album serves as the perfect listen that immerses us in a darker realm to capture our misery, as well as delivering a narrative to keep us engaged in the story and leave us mesmerized with beautiful acoustics and impressive vocal range.

With songs that instantly set a tone of emotion such as Elegantly Expressed Depression, the lyricism instantly delivers imagery and story telling with a nice acoustic structure surrounding that. It sets a great representation of the technical abilities to go full range over a nice and simple acoustic pattern. A Boy and a Girl being a much shorter track demonstrates their great use of simplicity even further. It is a great song on its own while also being able to serve as an interlude, intro and/or outro. When we get a track such as Sad People, leading you in with very simple acoustic picking, the instrumentation is able to convey an environment as much as the lyricism. You get a 5 minute and 42 second composition where the acoustics and vocals work well independently and very well together. As each element takes the spotlight, it leaves you wondering how it is going to push the narrative even more. Even with this being a track that is raw and holds nothing back in its emotional aspect, it still remains rather subtle and soothing. As it leads perfectly into the longest track, Grow, it does exactly that. The acoustics have more notes happening at once and makes the composition more full. With the instrumentation taking a somewhat faster pace as the vocals come more in and out with range, this is a track that demonstrates evolution and more imagery, both lyrically and instrumentally. The acoustics do come louder and louder at some points which further enhances the suspense. Free Country continues the acoustic progression even more with a familiar, yet fresh pattern. After a quick acoustic intro the vocals are way more in your face and at the fullest range. At this point, every track you were hearing before this was almost leading up to this very moment. The guitars deliver its own distinct melody that works well together with the vocals and separately. We go from Sad People to Sad Dog for the next track. The formula is carried once again, but builds up more and more and more. Towards the end, the vocals are full on in your face with its range and pitch. With some subtle keys leading the outro, you get the ultimate track of melancholy. Take Him Away ends this album with a sound that is familiar at this point but also fresh. The also know how to use elements of silence in their favor before hitting us with the next note. It is so atmospheric that it almost feels like we are hearing this live in an intimate lounge, which concludes this on the best note, because you feel closer to this group than ever towards the end.

Acoustic albums are easily the hardest to execute. If it is going to be done, it has to be done right, for you cannot hide behind the smokescreen of distortion, auto-tune or gain. If you slightly botch a note on the guitar, are slightly go off key vocally, it will be heard and noticed and can potentially ruin the whole composition. With a great use of simplicity, technical excellence, engaging lyricism, Witch Craft takes us on an emotional adventure and relaxed listen in Black Metal. This can be the sountrack to your moments of grief, or a sountrack to your next ritual, either way, Witchcraft will leave you with some sort of impression by the end of this listen.

Black Metal out now on Nuclear Blast.